Pubdate: Sun, 20 Jan 2002
Source: Daytona Beach News-Journal (FL)
Copyright: 2002 News-Journal Corp
Contact:  http://www.n-jcenter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/700
Author: Laura Zuckerman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186 (Oxycontin)

LOCAL LEGISLATORS WRITE BILLS TO THWART DRUG, DAY-CARE DEATHS

TALLAHASSEE -- Deaths by overdose and at day-care centers are leading 
two local legislators to sponsor bills aimed at preventing them.

Volusia County's Sen. Locke Burt wants to crack down on prescription 
painkillers and Rep. Evelyn Lynn wants to tighten licensing of 
child-care facilities overseen by religious groups.

The proposals by the two Ormond Beach Republicans are in response to 
deaths in Volusia County and will be debated during the upcoming 
legislative session.

Burt is sponsoring three measures aimed at toughening requirements on 
prescription drugs, including a pharmaceutical for pain relief that 
is a proven killer in Volusia County.

OxyContin, manufactured by Purdue Pharma, is blamed for the deaths of 
370 people in Florida over a 13-month period beginning July 2000. And 
medical officials believe the drug is behind five deaths in Volusia 
County during the first six months of last year, nearly twice the 
total number recorded during the same period the year before.

The powerful painkiller is abused because it offers a heroin-like 
high, say drug officials.

The proposals include creating a database -- available only to 
physicians, pharmacists and law enforcers -- to keep track of drug 
prescriptions (SB 636, 638) and making the illegal prescription of 
drugs by physicians punishable with prison time (SB 640).

Gov. Jeb Bush has already touted the pieces of legislation, which are 
being sponsored in the House by Rep. Larry Crow, R-Dunedin.

The death last year of a toddler at a church-run day-care center in 
Daytona Beach is behind Lynn's proposal (HB 175) to have the state in 
charge of licensing child-care facilities overseen by religious 
groups.

Two-year-old Zaniyah Hinson died Aug. 10 after being left by a worker 
with the Abundant Life Academy of Learning, affiliated with Abundant 
Life Ministries, for two hours in a van in which temperature soared 
as high as 127 degrees, authorities said.

Prosecutors have filed manslaughter and neglect charges in the case, 
but children's advocates said the incident underscored the problem 
with an exemption in the state's day-care licensing law for church- 
based schools that also offer day-care services.

Officials behind such facilities argue that government oversight will 
reach beyond licensing and threaten the wall separating church and 
state.

Under existing law, church-run day-care centers are only exempt from 
state licensing regulations if they prove their standards meet or 
exceed the ones governing state-licensed facilities.
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